peace and good!

spirituality

I believe that this little story captures the essence of Easter: A prison guard once told Nelson Mandela, “Do you not know that I have the power to have you killed?” Mandela responded, “Do you not know that I have the power to go to my death freely?” In Mandela’s willingness to die, he experienced … →

Today, we celebrate the birthday of an extraordinary man. Fred Rogers (of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fame) passed away in 2003. He would have been 88 years old today. He offered his life to the world and in the process has borne much fruit in the lives of countless children—and adults—across the generations. When I recall … →

( Love and Death, Woody Allen, 1975 ) I wish to provide some advance warning: this post deals quite candidly with sensitive issues of death and violence. Reader discretion is advised. The Latin root of the word ‘absurd’ is surdus. Surdus translates as ‘deaf’. I recently viewed an extremely gripping documentary that exhibited the terrors of the Holocaust to me … →

I offer this simple, free, and original hymn to the world. It’s called “My Prodigal Son”. This is a homemade-quality clip of “My Prodigal Son” being used in a parish setting. (St. Robert’s Parish. Shorewood, WI. March 03, 2016.) It’s licensed under a Creative Commons license and thus totally free to use in your parish, … →

This is one of those topics that I didn’t foresee myself wanting to write about when I created this blog. But nonetheless, here goes: celibacy. I’ll preface this post by stating that I recommend skimming BBC’s article before delving into my ramblings. Yesterday, BBC One aired a 30-minute documentary on some recently-publicized correspondence between Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (an American … →

(Photo by Alan Cook. Used with permission.) In some ways, this photograph captures the essence of human fulfillment. This is an image of Henri Nouwen dancing with Linda Slinger, a woman at L’Arche Daybreak. L’Arche Daybreak is a community for people with and without intellectual disabilities. Linda Slinger passed away in 2011 after having lived a … →